Mark Cuban believes in a future where humans live alongside robots, just not the ones you’re probably picturing.
“Everybody’s making this push for humanoid robots. I think they might have a 5-year lifespan, and then they’ll fail miserably. Maybe 10,” Cuban said Thursday on the live-streamed tech show TBPN.
Humanoid robots have plenty of fans, including Elon Musk, who has said he believes Tesla’s Optimus could be the company’s future. Business Insider reported in January that OpenAI had quietly built up a humanoid robotics lab last year.
But Cuban said he thinks co-designing spaces and robots would be better than simply making robots that mimic humans and fit into the world as it currently exists.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, a house is a house, you need a humanoid.’ I think houses are going to be redesigned completely,” he said.
For example, he said there could be robots that look like spiders or ants, capable of lifting and carrying things, while the house could be designed so that the pantry, refrigerator, and washing machine are hidden, with the robots primarily interacting with them, while the actual living space is used by people.
“The robots aren’t going to be full-form humanoids. They’re going to be whatever the optimal shape is,” Cuban said. “You design the house to fit the robot, and you design the robot to fit the house.”
He also pointed to Amazon’s use of robots in its warehouses, noting they are not humanoids carrying boxes around. Amazon has said it has over 1 million robots that sort, lift, and carry packages. None of them looks like a human.
Still, major companies like Tesla and OpenAI, as well as smaller startups, continue to invest in developing humanoids. An executive at Agility Robotics, which has deployed its humanoids at Amazon and Toyota, told Business Insider its robots could step in to fill manufacturing roles that humans don’t want.
“This re-shoring of manufacturing in the US is going to only occur through a combination of human employment and automation technology, like humans and robotics,” he said.
Cuban did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
